President Enacts Amendment to Rental Law Adding Protections for Tenants Over the Age of 65

30 January 2019

The President of Portugal enacted a decree passed by the National Assembly creating measures to rectify an imbalance of power between tenants and landlords, increasing the security and stability of urban rentals, while protecting elderly tenants.

Today, the President of Portugal enacted a decree by the National Assembly which amends the rental law and establishes new protections for tenants.

The focus of the decree is on providing additional guarantees for senior citizens (65 years of age or more) and people with disabilities (equal to or more than 60%) who have been living in the same home for at least 15 years. In such cases, the new measure will bar landlords from revoking rental contracts unless the property will undergo major renovations or demolition. Even then, the landlord must arrange for similar housing in the same geographical area for the tenant.

The head of state stressed, however, that “these changes, by rebalancing the current legal provisions on urban rentals to the immediate benefit of tenants, could, as has been seen in the past, lead to greater constraints on the housing rental market.”

The president also warned that the changes to the rental law may therefore ultimately frustrate “the interests of future tenants as well as potential landlords.”

Portugal’s President stated that he regrets “the numerous and continuous changes to a regulatory framework that should obviously be more stable, in addition to creating very complex transitional arrangements,” but “considering that it also seeks to address certain situations of particular fragility and that it has received the assent of the National Association of Municipalities, he is enacting the National Assembly’s decree, approving measures that attempt to correct imbalances between tenants and landlords, increase the security and stability of urban rental agreements and protect tenants in situations of special fragility.”

Original Story: Jornal Econômico – Maria Teixeira Alves

Photo: In Loco Property Investments

Translation: Richard Turner